Thai junta lifts martial law

Thailand's junta yesterday lifted martial law but replaced it with new orders retaining sweeping powers for the military under a section of the interim constitution that has been lambasted by rights groups.

Special security measures -- including a ban on political gatherings of more than five people -- will continue to blanket the kingdom, which has seen civil liberties eroded since the military declared martial law and seized power from an elected government last May.

The royal order comes a day after junta chief and premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha said he had asked the country's ailing 87-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej for permission to lift the controversial law.

The new measures have been imposed to "handle any actions that will destroy peace and order, and national security, also any violations against the NCPO (junta)", said the announcement late Wednesday.

The generals took over last May after months of often violent street protests that led to the ousting of Yingluck Shinawatra's democratically-elected government.

It marked the latest chapter in a decade of political conflict broadly pitting Bangkok's middle classes and the royalist elite -- backed by parts of the military and judiciary -- against pro-Shinawatra urban working-class voters and farmers from the country's north.